Character Name Purge with Folks not Playing Anymore

I really have to wonder about those criteria. I created a Jedi character named "Yadira" (named after the twi'lek boss fight chick from Black Talon) and basically went to the mailbox on Tython. You know, the very first mailbox in the very first area. That's all I did. So game time played was like a minute and a half.

And yet, I kept the name when the server merged with the mega server, and I know for a fact that that name was taken on all of the other servers that merged with mine.

I'm really not wild about any idea that effects players that have left the game. If it's a three year hiatus, perhaps. But IMO this game has not been out long enough to consider releasing names at this time.

They should reward the players that are here now, not the ones who aren't (and may never be again).

If this were only for, say characters below level 10 or something, I would agree. But for anything else, no thanks

I can think of 3 friends who stopped playing like February of last year, never want to play again, and have characters between 20 - 40, one actually has a 50 . So no one else can use those names because of this. Awesome.

add me to the "no" on this.

there's plenty of ways to get a similar name..with alt-character... a ' or - in the name..etc

I've been using the SAME name for my main for literally 22 years...if it's not available? I do one of the above.

actually my user name here "Suromir" came about taking my 22 year old name and altering it.

so no they shouldn't do this. For more than the reason I've listed.

Sorry for hacking the post apart -- but these are the parts I'm "responding" to.

I AGREE COMPLETELY! I HATE when people in-game use my real name. Everyone knows me as Kilora. That's been my name for over 6 years when playing online. I respond to it. I love it. I have a history with it.

I'm lucky enough to have that name, but had to change most of my others. But, in all honesty, I'd probably abandon my character if I was forced to rename. That being said -- if I left the game for 9+ months, I wouldn't be mad to come back and have to change my name.

Kinda what happened with me and server merges, though >.<

Glad to see someone has common sense. I agree to this. I would not be mad if I returned to a game I hadn't played for 6+ months and find I had to rename. I might be a little disappointed, but I'd recognize that I forfeited my claim to it and move on.

Yeah, I would be able to deal with having to change my name. I mean, I wasn't using it and someone else wanted it. There should be a grace period, but if you're gone long enough and someone else wants your name, they should be able to get it.

I agree that there needs to be a procedure for returning names back to the pool.

I've had no problem with any of my names, thankfully, but I do not think it's fair for other names to be sitting inactive forever. Put something in the EULA about it like "inactive accounts will be 'archived' after 6 months with character names being made available to active/new users". When I say "archived", they can store your entire character and Legacy on their servers and if you ever come back you get everything as it was with perhaps a name change yourself cuz you lost yours due to inactivity.

At the 6-month point you'd get 3 emails, one per week, warning you and giving you a chance to maintain your activity by either clicking a link (in case you're unable to play but still have Internet access) or actually logging into the game. But if you don't respond then it's clear you either don't play anymore or you don't even have Internet access.